New AMD CEO Gets $1 Million Base Salary

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AMD revealed that it will paying its new CEO Rory Read a base salary of $1 million, the highest base salary for an AMD CEO in the company's history.

Read's predecessors Dirk Meyer and Hector Ruiz had a base of $950,000 each, plus the usual bonuses. Jerry Sanders left the daily business of AMD in 2002 with a salary of $916,000 (but may have earned more during certain years - for example, he reportedly earned $1.04 million in 1996, which may have included some bonuses).

Read also received a $1 million sign-on bonus, half of which he has to repay if he leaves AMD within the next 2 years. He is eligible for up to 150 percent bonus of his base salary as well as the common incentive programs. During a conference call with media and analysts, Read mentioned that the pay was not the reason why he is joining AMD, but rather the "exciting" opportunity. Referring to his salary, he noted that he held a great job before AMD at Lenovo as president and COO. However, we believe that the pay isn't a downside of this job either.

Read more about Read's hiring here.

Douglas Perry
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mute20
    Hope that million motivates him to get amd into shape vs intel.
    Reply
  • jdamon113
    now let get going with some new ideas.
    New CEO be smart, buy the HP PC Line they are selling it.
    this could do you well in the OEM market where intel holds supremacy.
    Not that I do not like intel. I have may intel products,. I would just like to keep the compition is check.
    Reply
  • southernshark
    Buying HPs line would be a disasterjdamon113now let get going with some new ideas.New CEO be smart, buy the HP PC Line they are selling it. this could do you well in the OEM market where intel holds supremacy.Not that I do not like intel. I have may intel products,. I would just like to keep the compition is check.
    Buying Hp's line would be a disaster since it would make AMD a direct competitor with Dell, Lenova, Apple, Asus, Acer, etc..... That would be about as smart as 3DFX making its own chipset.
    Reply
  • del35
    A million isnt what it used to be.

    Ummm, the purchasing power of the dollar has fallen over 30% in the past 3 years. So yes, that is not such a great salary.

    http://youtu.be/HMJj7_wc8YY

    Reply
  • acadia11
    I don't think that's huge for a CEO, or a company of it's size.
    Reply
  • bustapr
    I actually thought their base was more. I expected the leader of AMD to get paid millions right off the bat. Its pleasantly surprising to know AMD pays the boss a good amount for the job, that noone can really complain about.
    Reply
  • alidan
    soldier37Before some of you start to wealth envy, that salary seems about right for the job. A million isnt what it used to be. Yeh it would be nice to have that in the bank but really it I could go through it in a couple years at the rate everything is going. I just hope AMD gets its act together with Bulldozer and get competitive again.
    if you put 1 million into stocks, at about a 7% interest rate a year, which is about what stocks yield at minimum if you don't suck at playing the market, thats 70k on the interest alone. you could theoretically live your entire life off 1 million $ alone. southernsharkBuying HPs line would be a disasterBuying Hp's line would be a disaster since it would make AMD a direct competitor with Dell, Lenova, Apple, Asus, Acer, etc..... That would be about as smart as 3DFX making its own chipset.
    yea, but tell me, what to most of those lines put into their own pcs? it sure as hell isnt intel.

    what amd could do with the hp line, is use it as a platform to get amd out there. build monster systems, but don't sell it to make a profit, sell it to break even with a minimal profit. this way you are putting out pcs that are of amassing quality, but also cheap, and can get some bran recondition beyond the ati gpus.

    it could be a good move, than when the brand recondition is up, sell off the pc devision for a sizable profit, as the pc was just to get brad recondition up, not to pull in the profit, though selling it off for more is a nice bouns.

    Reply
  • Jung
    soldier37Before some of you start to wealth envy, that salary seems about right for the job. A million isnt what it used to be. Yeh it would be nice to have that in the bank but really it I could go through it in a couple years at the rate everything is going. I just hope AMD gets its act together with Bulldozer and get competitive again.
    It's not envy, it's disgust. He should a 100K base and the rest performance based.
    Reply
  • slabbo
    i agree, he's getting a cool million and hasn't done anything yet. what ever happened to performance base salary. work harder get paid better.
    Reply
  • fball922
    JungIt's not envy, it's disgust. He should a 100K base and the rest performance based.Good luck attracting the kind of talent required to run a complex business like AMD with a base salary of 100K. Idiot.
    Reply